Google moves into the privacy hot seat

No one at Google envied Mark Zuckerberg last week as he was being grilled by U.S. Congress. But for years, they certainly coveted the personal data that made Facebook Inc. a formidable digital ad player. And the strategies they set to compete have now placed Google squarely in the cross hairs of a privacy backlash against the world’s largest social-media company.

The hearings last week centred on the digital information and machinery Facebook built up to serve targeted ads. No company has a bigger business doing that — except Google.

“Google, in every respect, collects more data. Google, in every respect, has a much bigger advertising business,” said David Chavern, president of News Media Alliance, a publisher trade group. Rather than “a Facebook privacy law,” he expects regulation to target the entire industry.

So far, Alphabet Inc.’s Google has suffered fewer of the problems plaguing Facebook.

But two years ago, the company rolled out new rules for its DoubleClick system, which targets and places ads across the web.

Advertisers could pair their own web-tracking data (from “cookies” that follow users online) with Google information including searches, location history, phone numbers and credit card information.

Google stresses its ad targeting is anonymous, with strict privacy controls in place. The ad industry is also quick to point out that the Cambridge Analytica saga is different than Google’s ad targeting.